Hollow
by Simple.White.Lie
Summary: Mara is gone and Luke isn't sure how to carry on. "Cold. That's all he could feel. The sensation of; unhindered, unhampered, empty and lonely, Cold." First shot at writing L/M. One Shot.


First shot at writing outside of Padme/Anakin. These two are my new addiction. Please be kind.

Disclamier: _Blah blah blah_... Lucas is King.

_If I never knew you, if I never felt this love_

_I would have no inkling of how precious life can be_

_And if I never held you, I would never have a clue_

_How at last I find in you, the missing part of me._

Cold. That's all he could feel. The sensation of; unhindered, unhampered, empty and lonely, Cold. Mara was laying still on the pyre. She would never dart her eyes at him in bemusement. She would never sit and listen, giving advice on how to lead the Jedi onwards. She had been his beacon for so long that he felt lost. Her warm fiery light was no longer leading him onwards. His soul burnt with the realisation that this was where he would have to leave her. This point in time.

The Jedi and the dignitaries were gathered outside, and Ben was off in another room with Saba who was practicing her speech. He was conscious that he would have to be strong for Ben, the boy was suffering immensely without his mother, the two having been very close. Luke wiped the errant tears from his face and looked at her serene porcelain complexion. If ever there was a time he needed his sister, it was then. He needed his family, he needed someone to tell him to be strong, for Ben, for the Jedi, for her. She wouldn't want him to suffer, she wouldn't want him to fail.

He kept looking up, expecting to see an ethereal form – her form – walking towards him. Her green eyes sparkling, but he knew; deep down, that she wouldn't come back like Obi Wan, like his Father had attempted. She had left little unfinished, but his own selfish need weighed him down, screaming into the abyss.

He had wasted so much time, ten years exactly. Four of them she had been trying to kill him, the other six they had danced around the obvious. She had always been there, dancing just out of reach until that fateful day both soaked from the drain as they escaped from capture. He had poured his heart out and she had given him the smirk that would otherwise be a show of indifference if it hadn't been for the rosy blush that crossed her cheeks.

She was his rock, and without her, he was unstable, unwilling to move on. Their bed was empty and too big for just him. The early days had seen them staying together at the Temple, both to exhausted most nights to do more than crash into bed and sleep until the next morning when they would separate with a kiss to either corner of the Temple to train and rebuild the Order. As the Jedi flourished, their roles became less leading and more advisory, the apartment on Coruscant an old acquisition of hers and after four years it was very much theirs.

He cupped her cold cheek and the tears fell on her stony face as he kissed her forehead. His time alone was waning, and since her body had not passed into the Force, it would be burned in the traditional ceremony. Like his Father, Luke would have to once more watch his family burn. Although unlike the tentative and childlike love he held for his father, the searing pain he felt at the thought of never seeing her again.

Once more he thought of never hearing her smile and cheekily call him 'Farmboy' or 'Skywalker'. The soft way she would say his name in the dark of the night when she would have a vision or a nightmare.

"_Luke?" Her voice was quiet and tentative as his eyes fluttered and focused in the dark, her flame red head tucked under his chin. "Sorry if I woke you."_

" '_S Ok." He mumbled and his arms wound around her and pulled her close, and that was when he noticed her shivering, "Are you ok?" he said softly, his voice thick with sleep._

"_I'll be fine." She said quickly, "Just.. bad dreams." _He had held her and just like that, all the bad went away. With her, bad didn't touch him, but as Ben and Saba walked in followed by the Jedi he knew the time was gone. He didn't want to accept it, but he acknowledged it life the Krayt dragon breathing fire in his face.

"Dad?" Ben walked up to his father and was enveloped into his arms. The two hugged silently as the Jedi carried Mara's lifeless body out. Ben sniffled and withdrew from his father as they both pulled the large grey cowl's over their faces, hiding their tears from the world. He was the Grand Master every other day but this one.

He and Ben stood feet from the pyre and he felt the yawning ache taunting him to jump, to give in to the sorrow. _Remember being happy. Remember my love. For Ben. _The wind whispered. He could hear her melodic voice dancing on the air. Reaching out he was met with nothing but emptiness and darkness, but the calm washed over him as it had always done when she was there. Saba began speaking and his eyes latched on her as she vanished. He blinked several times and stared at the pyre.

_Of course she would_. She would deny him the duty that was his as Jedi Master. But a softer voice whispered _No. _She didn't take away, she gave. She wasn't coming back, and so she gave him time to say goodbye.

"Mara." He whispered, choking on the word as it escaped his lips. Ben leaned on his side and Luke laid an arm on his shoulder as the back door blew open and Jacen walked determinedly up the walk.

Their family had been the most important thing to Mara, family was something she had never known before Luke, and she would expect him to protect what was left of her family. Jacen nodded to his uncle and Luke smiled uneasily at the brash young man. No matter what, he would stand by them.

Hollow or not, he would carry on. _I love you Mara._

* * *

Well? Did I get these two right?


End file.
